B5 Blue Owners -- Your Input is Requested!

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CudaChick1968

CudaChick1968

Leanna ~ The Mistress of Metal
FABO Vendor
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Over the years I've had many, many requests for powder coating work in B5 Blue. I could never convince any of those people to provide me with a color sample to work with though so my hands were pretty much tied in being able to come up with any kind of suitable match.

Even though he has other plans in mind for his own car, our member VOETOM volunteered to help out and has gallantly stepped up to the plate on behalf of B5 owners everywhere!! :prayer:

He sent me a paint sample which I forwarded to my powder supplier in Oregon, paid for the two powders that comprised the formulation, and then shipped me a nice 14" steel rim to try them out on. I got it finished up the night before last and snagged some pictures of it out in the sun yesterday.

I'll be shipping his wheel back early next week so he can mount it on the car and compare it with his paint job in person, but in the meantime he asked me to share it with the Mopar World for opinions and input.

It's my understanding (thanks to our beloved restorer Kori Alexander of Show and Go Resto) there is more than one B5 Blue depending on the application year and paint manufacturer ... but if I can get close to one of them I'll have finally accomplished a major goal I've had for a long time.

Though monitor settings can have a big impact on how a color truly looks, I'd love to hear what ya'll think of these preliminary results on this long sought after potential B5 color match. I've been experimenting for years and this one finally looks pretty good to me ... but I'm not the one who has to be happy with it. YOU ARE.

The first few pictures were taken outdoors in the sun at 12:15 p.m. Central time and the last one on the brown paper was inside under the shop lights. Some of my usual 2- and 3-inch close ups are probably TOO close to be much help here, but you can at least get an idea of the serious metallic content.

Thank you all in advance for your opinions and input!! I'll be posting this thread on the sister sites (and anywhere else I can think of lol) so don't be shy if you have a thought or a pic of your own car to share and compare. :-D Thank you FABO, and a bigggggggg Thank You with a full blown Dating Game kiss goes out to VOETOM muahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

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We anxiously await your replies. :-D
 
Looks, good Leanna, though it's been years since my '74 Barracuda was in B5.

I would hazard to guess, though, with color variations from paint manufacturer to paint manufacturer and variations in mixes within a paint manufacturer's line of paints going on a body this is going to be as good a match as you can get.

I've seen examples of your work in person on some of the coating you do on engines. While your powder is close to what the original color should be the differences in what the paint manufacturers call "Mopar engine blue" is noticeable.

I would hazard to say, that if someone were to stick with wheels or maybe dash pieces, then any natural separations like wheel wells, tires, door gaps, etc, would be enough to offset any color variations going from powder to paint.
 
Leanna,

Not only is there variation in the year to year models, there's variation within each year.

I have a 1970 B5 car that I could get some original paint off it for you for a sample. We had some original paint 1970 cars in b5 that shade varied, so who knows what is "correct"...
 
Rob, that would be awesome! Every little bit of research is going to help out with this quest. Thanks! :-D
 
CudaChick1968 said:
Rob, that would be awesome! Every little bit of research is going to help out with this quest. Thanks! :-D
Click to expand...
hmm A friend of mine Has a 35 year old 70 b5 blue paint job from the dealership and I think he's got some touch up paint left. I'm going to see him in August for the dream cruise and will see if he can part with a small sample. here 's his b5.
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crackedback said:
Leanna,

Not only is there variation in the year to year models, there's variation within each year.

I have a 1970 B5 car that I could get some original paint off it for you for a sample. We had some original paint 1970 cars in b5 that shade varied, so who knows what is "correct"...
Click to expand...



i agree. way too many b5 blues out there to tell for sure what anyone may have.
 
Looks good! Agreed with the different shades. Mine is the darker shade which I love. I have an msd mount that I painted when I shot my car if you need a sample of that shade, just let me know. Here is a pic of my car in the darker B5.
 

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Chk it out.
Since you mentioned lighting differences with monitors I downloaded some B5 car pictures.
At first I thought there might be too much green in the rim color, but where the light is at it's brightest point the cars have a lot of green.
All I did was change the lighting on the section of the rim to see if it would match the cars different shading.
I hope it works out, but it seems there are a ton of "B5" colors out there, and as you know metalic is a frikin bear to mach to an already colored car.
On the other hand, a metalic car may be all over the place in color due to the lighting anyway, so it could actually work for you instead of against you.
 

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My opinion is that it has too much metal flake in it (sparkle) from what I see in the close up pictures.

My B5 car is still in the paint shop and was already repainted before that, so I can't get any good original paint to match it to.

Have you tried to contact Chrysler and see if they have any of the old color masters available? If they don't have any of the old ones, they may have some of the "new" ones that were on the new style Challenger. Any supplier that supplied a body colored part to Chrysler should have a color master sample to match. Their is a "nominal" - mid shade and tolerance allowed "a little darker/a little lighter".

Back in the mid 90's when we were launching a sport model truck (with painted bumpers and grille), the trucks were built without grilles and bumpers at the factory. Then sent to another supplier to put on the grille, bumpers, and stripes. One of the colors (I think it was green) the bumpers and grille didn't match the paint on the body. They called in the color masters from design studio and put them beside the parts to see who was off color.... It was the body! (oh crap!). They scrapped that truck and made another one, and everything matched better.

My dad special ordered a 98 Grand Cherokee with the 5.9L in it. It was only made in three colors. His was put on hold for a while because the grille supplier had trouble getting the white grille to match the color master. It took 2-3 months for them to figure it out and then build his truck.

There are color masters available from Chrysler for their suppliers to use for matching the paint for the parts that they supply to them. Maybe you can convince them to send you a set...
 
"My opinion is that it has too much metal flake in it (sparkle) from what I see in the close up pictures. "

I will agree with krazykuda on this. The flake is too pronounced. (Although it looks beautiful.)

I have done paintwork since the early '70s. One problem with matching original paint is that the mixing colors aren't the same as they were back then. And as a general rule, the cars weren't as 'shiny' as we tend to 'remember' them. And with quality control the way it was back then, some cars might have gotten more paint (better coverage) on them than others. A few years ago I had a very interesting conversation with an elderly gentleman who had worked at the St. Louis plant. Among other things I learned a lot from him about the paint process.........more than I feel like typing here. LOL

Since we are used to base/clear paint now, even clearcoating original paint distorts the way the paint looks. The clear tends to 'emphasize' the metallic and brighten the color.

The B5 on the modern Challenger also has pearl in it which the original colors did not have.

If you need a breakdown of the year variations of B5 I can check my color books and get back to you.

Good luck. You do very nice work.
Dallas
 
A good PPG rep should be able to mix you down Correct shades for each year but be aware that many colors with flake have a variance of 6 to 8 cards because of the differing production times etc
 
Wowwww, great info here guys!! Thank you one and all for your input and participation in my never ending quest for perfection. :-D

Karl, I've tried in the past to get cooperation from Chrysler corporate but they're very "tight lipped" about what they view as their protected trade secrets and work product ... it's totally understandable (I am too) ... but it makes my job a little tougher.

Thanks again for the help gang!! The more research I can undertake and evaluate, the better the overall results are going to be for all of us in the long run. Big wet sloppy Dating Game Kisses for all muahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh :-D
 
Snake, I wasn't singling you out or anything. Please don't be offended -- I didn't respond to everyone else's posts either. Yours only said you loved the color of your old Dart ... I fully appreciate that, but it doesn't really help me much in my quest unless you can share some good pictures of it or something. :-D Thanks for your input!
 
I like the idea, had my rims coated in a silver trying to match the original about twelve years ago and they are in need of attention. I would enjoy hearing your thoughts about dealing with rims in this condition, i.e. previously coated and deteriorating. Also - I have painted this car multiple times over the years and would tell you that the color is directly related to how wet you spray the paint, what color basecoat you use, how much paint you put on, if you use clearcoat and how much, etc. I applaud your efforts.
 

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Thanks Mark! Nice ride ...

All I really need is a starting point on one particular version of B5 and then I can doctor it up from there to tailor the results to an individual car's color.

Shoot me a PM when you can or, better yet, call me about your silver coating job -- I'd be happy to help you if I can. There are a lot of variables that could contribute to the problems you're having. Are you experiencing delamination (powder coming off), rock chips, road rash, etc.?
 
Leanna that wheel looks SWEET! Almost makes me want to get some powder coated steelies for the buggy. But I agree with others. There were soooo many variations of B5, I'd have to send ya a paint sample from my car to be sure it matched. Lol. But it would be worth it... Great job as always
 
YY1 said:
You really need the first letter of the paint code.

There is EB5 and GB5, that I know of, and may be more.

The first letter corresponds to the year it was introduced.

Here's a great relative chart-

http://www.aarta.com/challenger_colors/challenger_colors.html
Click to expand...


even then ya never know...

take plum crazy for instance. there is plum crazy, then there is alt 1 and alt 2 all for the same year and under he same code. a lot of guys don't know that though.
 
Ok it seams,it could be just the pic but it seams to have more metal flake than I remember.Here is a pic of the last Dart GT we hard some 15 years ago.
 

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